Upgrade advice required

My view from reading reviews is the Phenom II 940 is a bit ahead of the Core II Q9400 and the 920 just behind the Q9400. Both of the Phenom IIs are priced attractively at below the £200 mark. The AM3 versions due out next month should give another modest performance boost.

Core i7 depends on what you are using it for. Check out some reviews but I personally wouldn't bother with it if you are primarily using it for gaming.
 
Lucky old me my budget has increased.

Sooooo I am now going i7:yumyum::D

Going to get the 920,

1) does it come in an OEM flavour??

2)If it doesn't does retail come with a heatsink and fan and is said heatsink and fan up to the task of overclocking? ( i suspect not)

3)Which heatsinks are the mutts nuts for overclocking?

Concidering the Biostar TPower Intel X58 PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard

1)anybody got any experiance of this board?

2) Is it a good clocker?

as for memory I have no idea yet but i fancy 6Gb of tripple channel that will overclock well, I am concidering Corsair 6GB DDR3 Dominator PC3-12800C8 1600MHz (3x2GB) Triple Channel DDR3 just because its on offer at overclockers (£189.74)

as ever all recommendations will be greatfully recieved
 
"1) does it come in an OEM flavour?? " Yes, with just one year warranty which will be voided anyway and probably just two pounds cheaper. I'd go for the retail.

"2)If it doesn't does retail come with a heatsink and fan and is said heatsink and fan up to the task of overclocking? ( i suspect not)" It does, but I do not recommend OCing with it unless you have earplugs to avoid hearing damage.

"3)Which heatsinks are the mutts nuts for overclocking? " Noctua U12P SE1366, you could check out my user review in the member review section for that. Also, the scythe mugen 2 and the TRUE w/ bolt thru are used quite a lot.

Can't tell you anything about the motherboard, but the RAM is a good choice. Doesn't overclock too far, but isn't really necessary. At a speed of 4gHz (multi 20) your BCLK is 200. Memory multiplier 8 would bring it to 1600MHz :)
 
I think you did a god choice going for the i7. I myself totally crushed my budget and went for the ASUS Rampage II Extreme. Unlucky as I was it had a defective DIMM_B1 slot so I sent it back. Hopefully I'll get a new one this week, but I think any of the choices you have are equally good. The biggest difference is usually what extra feats are on them. Read a few reviews and figure out your basic needs should set you on the right MB for you. :)

And I can wouch for the Noctua U12P. One word: Intimidating
 
Noctua U12P SE1366 looks like a nice cooler, I will probably get that one. Nice review monkey.

deffinately going to be the i7 920 retail now.

as far as memory goes I am now stearing towards this

OCZ 6GB DDR3 PC3-15000 (3x2GB) Reaper Low-Voltage Triple Channel

I am still undecided as to the mobo though.
 
final shopping list

Ok unless anyone can sugest a better way to spend my money upgrading my rig then I am going to order this fron overclockers in the morning.

i7 920 retail £250.69

Noctua U12P SE1366 £52.89

Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound £4.59

OCZ 6GB DDR3 PC3-15000 (3x2GB) Reaper Triple Channel £229.99

Biostar TPower Intel X58 £213.89
 
Hmm I'm not really sure about the ram. I'm sure it's good stuff but please remember it's very high. The gigabyte ud5 allows only 3 strips of such ram to be installed when the noctua cooler is on installed, the leftmost ddr slot goes just below the cooler.

So make sure the leftmost primary ddr3 slot is at least 6-~4 = 56 mm away from the center of your CPU socket or you will not be able to either fit the push fan or even the whole heatsink.
 
I can't say anything about the MB choice since I haven't read any reviews about it at all, but I agree with Monkey on the memorypart. The Noctua is very large, so you have to consider the space. It can be mounted both ways I believe, but it's as big in both directions with both fans so it's no difference.
 
name='monkey7' said:
Hmm I'm not really sure about the ram. I'm sure it's good stuff but please remember it's very high. The gigabyte ud5 allows only 3 strips of such ram to be installed when the noctua cooler is on installed, the leftmost ddr slot goes just below the cooler.

So make sure the leftmost primary ddr3 slot is at least 6-~4 = 56 mm away from the center of your CPU socket or you will not be able to either fit the push fan or even the whole heatsink.
Click to expand...

a very good point, thanks (rep added)

Any good ram recommendations? 6gb tripple channel
 
order placed

order placed this morning,

big thanks to everyone who posted in this thread giving their opinion or sharing their knowledge :cool:

the final decisions were:-

- Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail

- Biostar TPower Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard

- Corsair 6GB DDR3 Dominator PC3-12800C8 1600MHz (3x2GB) Triple Channel DDR3 (TR3X6G1600C8D)

- Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1366)

- Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound
 
Glad to help. You're gonna have a blast with that rig I think. :)

PS: The Noctua usually comes with a whole tube of quality paste. Mine did atleast.
 
Yeah, I used mx-2 because I had it anyway, but the supplied paste is very good. So if you're not going to use the mx-2 for any other heatsinks I'd leave it out. Saves you a few quid :)

Good choice of hardware and thanks for the reps :)
 
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